Old Dominion holds off VCU 73-69 in OT to reach CAA final

Old Dominion 73, VCU 69, OT

At the end of regulation, Old Dominion junior forward Ben Finney was 2-of-7 and had missed his only 3-point attempt.

So when the pass came his way with 1:10 left in overtime, he didn't hesitate.

Finney's 3-pointer, which came with three seconds left on the shot clock after a near-turnover, put the Monarchs up five and cemented their comeback from 12-point second-half deficit in Sunday's 73-69 victory against VCU in a Colonial Athletic Association tournament semifinal.

ODU (25-8), the tournament's top seed, faces William and Mary in today's 7 p.m. championship game. An automatic NCAA berth awaits the winner.

"I try to just play through everything and just let everything roll off my back," said Finney, whose 3 was part of ODU's 4-for-4 effort in overtime. "When Kent gave me the pass, I didn't see anything but the rim, and I just let it go."

Sophomore guard Kent Bazemore nearly lost the ball on the play, but Rams defender Bradford Burgess slipped going after a steal. Finney corralled the loose ball and drilled the 3-pointer to put ODU, which trailed 52-40 with 12 minutes left in regulation, up 71-66 in the extra period.

The Monarchs survived a tense final minute as VCU got a 3 with 34 seconds left, and then the ball back when ODU senior forward Gerald Lee, who had a season-high 26 points, couldn't get the ball inbounds. But the Monarchs forced a miss by Ed Nixon and denied Burgess a tip-in before ODU guard Marsharee Neely controlled the rebound.

Neely, a senior reserve, had 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a steal in 19 minutes. Six of his points came in the first half as he helped the Monarchs weather a 2-for-11 start in front of a sellout crowd of 11,200 at the Richmond Coliseum weighted in favor of the hometown Rams.

"We talked a lot about how difficult it was going to be, and I thought we really stood up to the challenge," ODU coach Blaine Taylor said. "We got a tremendous performance from our two seniors. They want to write memories."

Lee sank two free throws with seven-tenths of a second left to ice the win.

The Monarchs led by three at halftime, but the Rams (22-9) opened the second half with a 10-0 spurt — part of a 23-8 run — to go up by 12 on T.J. Gwynn's slam after one of 15 turnovers ODU committed against VCU's harassing pressure.

After that, though, the Rams, the fifth seed and the defending CAA champions, made just two 3-pointers in the next 7:05. ODU, which beat VCU 73-70 Feb. 27 to win the regular-season conference title, pulled within three on Bazemore's fast-break layup, but the Rams answered with a 3 from Brandon Rozzell. Neely's 3 cut the lead to 58-55 with 4:30 to play, but Burgess responded with an inside bucket.

Keyon Carter's 3-pointer cut the lead to 60-58 with 3:48 to play, and after a Rams miss, Neely's stick-back tied the game at 60 with 2:45 to go. VCU guard Joey Rodriguez and Lee then traded buckets to knot the score at 62.

The Monarchs, who shot 50 percent in the second half, had a chance to take the last shot in regulation. But after a timeout with 34.4 seconds to play, Lee, dribbling in traffic, got the ball stuck on his hip for a turnover that gave the Rams new life with 6.5 seconds to go.

Rodriguez brought the ball up the court and tried to dump it down to 6-foot-11 forward Larry Sanders, who had just six points and six rebounds after picking up his fourth foul with 7:51 to play. The clock ran out, though, before Sanders' shot attempt.

"Old Dominion has a good team, and they're going to make a run back at you," VCU coach Shaka Smart said. "You've got to continue to get stops, and unfortunately we were unable to get enough late."